Abstract
With 18 million new cases diagnosed each year worldwide, cancer strongly impacts both science and society. Current models of cancer cell growth and therapeutic efficacy in vitro are time-dependent and often do not consider the Emax value (the maximum reduction in the growth rate), leading to inconsistencies in the obtained IC50 (concentration of the drug at half maximum effect). In this work, we introduce a new dual experimental/modeling approach to model HeLa and MCF-7 cancer cell growth and assess the efficacy of doxorubicin chemotherapeutics, whether alone or delivered by novel nitrogen-doped graphene quantum dots (N-GQDs). These biocompatible/biodegradable nanoparticles were used for the first time in this work for the delivery and fluorescence tracking of doxorubicin, ultimately decreasing its IC50 by over 1.5 and allowing for the use of up to 10 times lower doses of the drug to achieve the same therapeutic effect. Based on the experimental in vitro studies with nanomaterial-delivered chemotherapy, we also developed a method of cancer cell growth modeling that (1) includes an Emax value, which is often not characterized, and (2), most importantly, is measurement time-independent. This will allow for the more consistent assessment of the efficiency of anti-cancer drugs and nanomaterial-delivered formulations, as well as efficacy improvements of nanomaterial delivery.
Highlights
The incidence and mortality of cancer across the world is growing
nitrogen-doped graphene quantum dots (N-GQDs) served as a delivery platform for a conventional therapeutic, doxorubicin (DOX), while we assessed the improvement in therapeutic efficacy using a novel mathematical model we developed to describe cell growth
We performed cell counting and MTT assay studies to outline the advantages of the doxorubicin chemotherapeutic delivery by nitrogen-doped graphene quantum dots, and we utilized these data to develop a model to estimate time-independent
Summary
The incidence and mortality of cancer across the world is growing. In 2018, there were almost 18 million new cases of cancer diagnosed, along with 9.6 million deaths [1].Among those, breast cancer is the most common cancer in women, and rates of breast cancer are expected to continue to rise in the future [1] despite the continuing development of cancer therapeutic strategies. The incidence and mortality of cancer across the world is growing. In 2018, there were almost 18 million new cases of cancer diagnosed, along with 9.6 million deaths [1]. Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women, and rates of breast cancer are expected to continue to rise in the future [1] despite the continuing development of cancer therapeutic strategies. Cancer is a disease of pathological hyperplasia of cells due to mutations that allow for traits such as self-sufficient growth signals, the evasion of apoptosis, and sustained angiogenesis [2]. Most common cancer treatment approaches include surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy.
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